Market Wobbles & Amazon’s Escape

by

The market, you see, did a bit of a wiggle today. The S&P 500 nudged upwards, a mere 0.10% to 6,843.22, the Nasdaq Composite followed suit with 0.14% to 22,578.38, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average barely bothered to climb, managing just 0.07% to 49,533.19. It was all rather jittery, like a bowl of blancmange left near a tuba. A lot of this fuss, I suspect, stems from a peculiar sort of panic about these ‘Artificial Intelligences’ – machines thinking for themselves, the very idea! Frankly, it’s a bit like letting a chimpanzee run the accounts.

Market Movers & Shakers

This AI business has sent a shiver through the growth stocks, especially those that rely on spending enormous sums. But there was a glimmer of good news: Amazon (AMZN +1.19%) finally stopped its downward slide. It had been tumbling for days, you see, after announcing it intended to spend a truly monstrous amount of money on… well, on more machines. A sensible company would have bought a nice holiday for its employees, but no. Machines! Snowflake (SNOW 2.73%) took a bit of a tumble itself, poor thing, after Google unveiled a rather boastful ‘BigQuery.’ Meanwhile, Apple (AAPL +3.17%) and GE Aerospace (GE +3.61%) did their best to prop up the Dow, like sturdy little pillars.

What It Means for Those With Savings

This “SaaSpocalypse,” as some are calling it (a truly ghastly name, if you ask me), continues to spook the software crowd. These mega-companies, obsessed with AI, are dragging down the S&P 500 and Nasdaq. But there’s a funny thing. Our chaps at JPMorgan (JPM +1.40%) are suggesting some perfectly good companies are now being overlooked. They reckon investors are getting overly concerned with these ‘moats’ (a rather defensive term, don’t you think?) and regulations. They’re sniffing around for value, preparing for the next batch of numbers on inflation and economic growth.

And a word to the wise: even the most reliable companies selling everyday goods are looking a bit pale. Investors are worried that if people start tightening their belts, these companies won’t be able to charge quite so much for their biscuits and beans. It’s a rather gloomy outlook, but as I always say, a little bit of caution never hurt anyone. Especially when there are machines involved.

Read More

2026-02-18 01:04